Category Archives: Japan

Due to overwhelming response, we are having another session this coming Sunday at Grand Hyatt Singapore 1-5pm. You are welcome to grace our event here if you are interested to invest into Tokyo properties, or even just to know abit more. Call 94772121 to book a slot.

Are you looking at opportunities for Japan Real Estate? Come to our Property Gallery which will be held on 17/18 March 2018, at Hyatt Hotel Singapore, from 1 to 5 pm. Call David King @ 94772121 for more details.

According to Bloomberg, Japan’s upper house passed a bill last week that lets private homes rent out space to paying guests — limiting total stays to 180 nights a year. The law requires providers of such accommodation to register with local governments and lets local authorities impose their own restrictions.

Airbnb Inc. will thus now be able to operate in Japan legally after the government passed a law that sets out rules for home sharing. It is more well-received in Japan, compared with the encounters it had with New York, Barcelona and San Francisco. A tourism boom has cut into Japan’s supply of available hotel rooms and helped make the nation Airbnb’s fastest-growing market. The number of visitors from overseas will probably continue to reach records as Japan prepares to host the World Rugby Cup in 2019 and the Olympic games the following year.

Japan’s home-sharing limits are relatively lenient, compared with 90 days in London and 60 days in Amsterdam. The new law also distinguishes between those who share their own dwellings and absentee landlords, anticipating that the latter are more likely to be a source of friction in neighborhoods.

For those hosts that decide to stick with it, the good news is that demand will only continue to grow. More than 24 million tourists visited Japan in 2016, topping the record for a fourth straight year, according to the nation’s tourism organization. Airbnb accommodated 3.7 million of those visitors, according to the company. The government aims to raise the number of visitors to 40 million by 2020.

CapitaLand, through its mall business CapitaLand Mall Asia, acquire a portfolio of four office and retail properties in Japan’s Greater Tokyo Area, for about 51 billion yen (S$636.3 million) including transaction costs.

CapitaLand currently also owns and manages four shopping malls in Japan – namely Olinas Mall, Vivit Minami-Funabashi and La Park Mizue in Tokyo; as well as Coop Kobe Nishinomiya-Higashi in Kobe.

The Ascott Ltd, CapitaLand’s wholly owned serviced residence arm, owns and manages 46 properties with more than 3,500 apartment units in Japan. The group’s Japan portfolio also includes a 20 per cent stake in an office building – the Shinjuku Front Tower.

The acquisition will strengthen its foothold in Greater Tokyo, the world’s most populous metropolis, and increase the group’s total asset size in Japan to about S$2.5 billion.

The portfolio comprises two office buildings in Yokohama, Yokohama Blue Avenue and Sun Hamada; one office building in Tokyo, the Kokugikan Front; and, one shopping mall in Saitama, the Seiyu & Sundrug.

The long-term forecast of Greater Tokyo’s office market remains positive. The vacancies in central Tokyo expected to stay below 5 per cent through to 2025.

The Seiyu & Sundrug has a gross floor area (GFA) of close to 400,000 square feet, thus growing CapitaLand’s retail footprint in Japan by about 25 per cent to over 2 million sqft in GFA. Seiyu & Sundrug, in Saitama Prefecture, is the largest suburban mall within a three-kilometre radius.

Airbnb Inc. is finally getting the green light to do business in Japan after years of operating in grey areas of the law.

Airbnb, which just closed a $1 billion funding round that valued the company at $31 billion, has found a more receptive audience in Japan, compared with the clashes it had with municipal governments in New York, Barcelona and its home town of San Francisco. A tourism boom has cut into the supply of available hotel rooms and helped make the archipelago Airbnb’s fastest-growing market. Overseas visitors will probably continue to set records as Japan prepares to host the World Rugby Cup in 2019 and the Olympic games the following year.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved rules on Friday that limits home-sharing by private citizens to 180 days a year, according to the final draft of the legislation. The bill, which also leaves room for local authorities to impose their own restrictions, is now submitted for deliberation and approval by Japan’s parliament.

The new legislation, which still needs to pass Japan’s Diet, distinguishes between those who share their own dwellings and absentee landlords, anticipating that the latter are more likely to be the source of friction in neighborhoods. While Airbnb doesn’t break down its 48,000 listings in Japan by type, a search on its site shows hundreds of houses available for rent, as opposed to rooms in occupied homes. About 90 percent of hosts that aren’t present on the premises said the 180-day restriction would make their businesses unfeasible, according to a survey by the Japan Association of New Economy last year.

Airbnb, like its ride-sharing counterpart Uber Technologies Inc., has faced resistance from local authorities. Still, Japan’s home-sharing limits are relatively lenient, compared with 90 days in London and 60 days in Amsterdam. Still, for some hosts in Tokyo, the new rules may force them to choose between giving up a second source of income and committing to becoming a full-time rental property operator. Until now, high occupancy rates in popular neighborhoods such as Shibuya and Asakusa made it possible to make a profit on rented apartments, prompting people to take a second or third lease. The legislation would require a landlord’s permission and an operating license.

For those hosts that decide to stick with it, the good news is that demand will only continue to grow. More than 24 million overseas tourists visited Japan in 2016, topping the record for a fourth straight year, according to the nation’s tourism organization. Airbnb accommodated 3.7 million of those visitors, according to the company. The number will hit 35 million by 2020, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates.

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As one of its overseas expansion push, City Developments (CDL) has entered into the land of the rising sun, with the acquisition of a 20 per cent stake in a residential project in one of Tokyo’s poshest areas. The move is in line with CDL’s diversification strategy to accelerate its overseas expansion.

CDL bought the stake from Mitsui Fudosan Residential for a confidential sum. The 163-unit project, Park Court Aoyama The Tower, has a total gross development value of more than 50 billion yen (S$666 million).

Apparently the Japan’s real estate sector, in particular within Tokyo, is experiencing a strong boom in its residential market, with robust demand for well-located condominiums.

The project is in the Aoyama area within Minato ward – the centre of business activity, and home to the offices of many multinational corporations and foreign embassies.Park Court Aoyama The Tower, a 26-storey freehold development, is targeted at high-end domestic and foreign buyers.

Apartment sizes range from 389 sq ft to 3,789 sq ft, and an initial 55 units will be launched for sale. Prices will start from 178.8 million yen for a one-bedroom unit, 199.4 million yen for a two-bedder and 271 million yen for a three-bedroom unit.

CDL’s first partnership with its Japanese partner was in 2011 when it bought a prime site in Ginza for its flagship hotel in Japan. The site was developed into a 329-room hotel that is managed by Mitsui Fudosan Group. Park Court Aoyama The Tower is the second collaboration between CDL and Mitsui Fudosan Group in Japan.

To date, CDL (including Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, and CDL Hospitality Trusts) has poured in more than 50 billion yen in 2 residential developments and 3 hotels in Tokyo.

Offices, apartments and hotels are popping up in major cities across Japan as the BOJ’s quantitative easing and negative interest rates push bank lending to real estate developers to an all-time high.

Many developers and analysts expect the construction boom, and its economic benefits, to continue ahead of 2020 Tokyo Olympics – a welcome and very visible sign of success for the BOJ.

Real estate lending began its revival after the BOJ started quantitative easing in early 2013. It gathered pace after the central bank’s shock introduction of negative interest rates in January, which has crushed earnings and sent banks hunting for higher returns.

Domestic bank lending to the real estate sector rose 6.5 percent to 67.7 trillion yen (509 billion pounds) in the first quarter, the highest on record, according to BOJ data. The sector accounted for 14.5 percent of all domestic bank lending, the highest in five-and-a-half years.

Activity in the real estate sector is one bright spot in an otherwise disappointing assessment of Abe’s economic policies, known as “Abenomics.” Tourism-related spending is driving much of the recent activity.

Nationwide, construction of hotels and restaurants, measured by square metres, surged 93.6 percent in June from a year ago, the biggest increase in more than two years, land ministry data show.

The number of tourists visiting Japan is already at a record high after an easing of visa requirements. With Tokyo preparing to welcome visitors for the Olympics and rural areas also attracting more visitors, Japan could face a national shortage of around 41,000 hotel rooms by 2020.

Public works investment, including hotels and infrastructure for tourists, is the centrepiece of the government’s next stimulus package. Other property types are also seeing growth.

Office space in central Tokyo rose 1.7 percent in June from a year ago, the fastest gain since April 2013, data from office broker and research firm Miki Shoji Co show. In another welcome sign, growth has not been restricted to Tokyo alone. In central Nagoya, office space in June rose at the fastest annual pace in almost seven years, even if the market has been more subdued in Osaka.

And although residential housing starts fell in June for the first time in six months, the number of units is still at the highest level in a year, according to land ministry figures.

The economic benefits are considerable. The real estate and construction industries combined accounted for almost 18 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, the most recent year Cabinet Office data are available. The two sectors employ 10 percent of the workforce and have been advertising to hire more workers since late last year. More jobs means more consumption, not to mention the extra spending associated with moving into a new office or apartment.

The rise in activity has also begun feeding into wages. Wages for workers in property and leasing rose 7.3 percent in May from the same period a year ago, the fastest gain in two years, according to labour ministry data.

While wages in the construction sector fell an annual 1.4 percent in the same month, economists say a chronic shortage of construction workers should boost wages soon.

One concern was that Japan’s declining workforce means the replacement of older office buildings with shiny new ones has already exceeded demand. Yet, last year nationwide land prices rose a mere 0.2 percent, according to the National Tax Agency, while commercial land prices rose 0.9 percent, land ministry data show. Both were the first gains in eight years – hardly the stuff of bubbles.

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Posts from Katonghomes: Katong Homes

The following steps will prepare your home for a quicker sale and maybe help with the price. 1. Fix and Repair If you have been dragging your feet to make all those repairs, now is the time to fix all of those nagging things that you just lived with. Inside the house, look for things […]

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Are you looking investing out of Singapore for a change? Tokyo 2020 is only a couple of years away but Japan is transforming into a hotspot for both real estate investment and capital inflows. Join us for our Japan Property Gallery on 17/18 March 2018 held at Hyatt Hotel from 1- 5 pm.

Local mid-sized developer Roxy-Pacific Holdings’ associate company RH Guillemard was acquiring two freehold residential sites at 2 and 6 Guillemard Lane for a total price of $33.5 million. The developer plans to combine the two sites with two other freehold sites at 12 and 14 Guillemard Lane for residential development. Roxy-Pacific had announced the acquisition […]

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Are you looking for a home in the East Coast/Marine Parade area by the sea? This is a spacious home in the East Coast/Marine Parade area. Near to well known schools (Victoria School/ VJC/CHIJ, St Patrick, etc). Mins to Airport, CBD via ECP. Walking distance to the beach, the largest park in Singapore. Serene and […]

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Looking for an affordable property investment in prime Katong/East Coast area? This shop is an investment with potential for redevelopment. Basement unit with existing tenancy. Near Parkway Parade, i12 Katong Mall, East Coast Park and new MRT station. Call David for more details http://www.sgbayhomes.com/20921021

A unit of Chip Eng Seng Corp and Unique Real Estate has put in the top bid for a plum site in Woodleigh Lane. Unique Real Estate is a joint venture of Heeton Holdings and KSH Holdings units. The 99-year leasehold site launched on May 30 under the confirmed list for the first half of […]

Recent posts: Regality Singapore

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